The present invention relates to a toothbrush having a handle and a possibly electrically drivable brush head, which is connected to the handle via a neck part.
The success of toothbrushing, particularly of the molars, depends above all on exact guiding of the brush head along the inside and outside of the molars, the brush bristles to be guided from the gums to the crown of the tooth while the brush head simultaneously rotates halfway around the axis of the neck part. These brushing movements, which are to be performed by hand even with electrically driven brush heads, are difficult because there are no support points for the hand or for the toothbrush, so that the brush head frequently slides off and toothbrushing is strenuous and incorrect. It must be considered in this connection that for correct guiding of a typical toothbrush, the elbow has to be raised, which is tiring and, in addition, is a reason that the rotational movement of the toothbrush which is advantageous for guiding the brush head along the molars is not performed with the required precision while sufficient pressure is applied. This is true above all for the inside of the molars, because on the outside of the molars the brush head does find support on the inside of the cheek for guiding the toothbrush, but not on the inside of the molars. The special curves of the neck part of known toothbrushes produces just as few advantages in this connection as special bristle arrangements, because it primarily depends on maintaining exact brushing movements along the molars, which therefore depend on the skill and attentiveness of the brusher.
The present invention therefore has the object of designing a toothbrush of the type initially described in such a way that the brusher experiences effective support during proper handling of the toothbrush, so that good brushing success may be achieved without special skill and attentiveness.
This object is achieved by the present invention by a guide, surrounding the neck part with movement play, which forms a bite support.
The guide for the toothbrush, which surrounds the neck part of the toothbrush with movement play, offers, in a simple way, the advantageous possibility of supporting the toothbrush near the respective tooth to be brushed in such a way that not only is exact guiding of the brush head along the inside and outside of the molars made significantly easier, but the necessary pressure may also be exercised on the tooth surfaces to be cleaned without a tiring application of force, because advantageous lever ratios for the handling of the toothbrush are ensured by the support of the neck part on the guide. However, this requires that the guide for the neck part of the toothbrush may itself be fixed without movement in relation to the teeth to be cleaned. This is easily achieved in that the guide forms a bite support, i.e., is held tightly between the teeth. By dislocating this bite support between the teeth, a course of the neck part of the toothbrush in the guide which is more favorable for cleaning the individual teeth may always be achieved.
If the guide itself is taken between the teeth as a bite support, passing the toothbrush between the rows of teeth through the guide to the inside of the molars is simple. Taking the guide between the teeth in this way makes brushing the outside of the molars difficult, however, if a guide body which has a basically cylindrical shape is assumed. In order to also achieve guide conditions which are advantageous for brushing the outside of the molars, the guide may have a holding projection directed away from the neck part, which is used as a bite support for brushing the outside of the teeth, so that the guide comes to rest outside the rows of teeth.
Although the guide for the neck part of the toothbrush may be implemented in different ways, particularly simple construction relationships result if the guide forms a pass-through opening for the neck part, so that the neck part finds the necessary support for operation of the toothbrush in the correct position in the pass-through opening which encloses it. In this case, the guide generally forms an annular main body, the axial guide length of the pass-through opening to be smaller than the length of the neck part, so that the neck part may be moved back and forth axially inside the pass-through opening. The rotational movement of the toothbrush around the axis of the neck part and/or the pass-through opening results on its own. If the brush head of the toothbrush is additionally to be pivoted around a transverse axis, then an appropriate pivot angle may be easily ensured if the pass-through opening of the guide expands conically toward both the brush head and the handle.
For better holding of the guide between the upper and lower rows of teeth, it may be provided with at least one bite recess, which is preferably tailored to the typical course of the teeth and offers a good hold for the teeth. For a holder of the guide in the region of the pass-through opening, the bite recesses advantageously run transverse to the neck part, because in this case the toothbrush must be guided between the upper and lower rows of teeth toward the inside of the molars. For brushing the outside of the molars, a toothbrush guide aligned essentially in the direction of the rows of teeth is to be ensured, so a bite recess on the holding projection in the direction of the axis of the neck part is advantageous.
If the pass-through opening of the guide is implemented as closed on its circumference, the guide will be held captively on the neck part of the toothbrush. In order to be able to retrofit a typical toothbrush using a guide according to the present invention or to provide the possibility of removing this guide from the toothbrush, the guide may form a pass-through opening for the neck part which is open on its circumference and which may be placed on the neck part by elastically expanding the pass-through opening transverse to the neck part.